Article handling mechanism



March 30,1937. 'J owmsK 2,075,050

ARTICLE HANDLING MECHANISM mea Jan. 4, '1954 Patented Man. 30, 1937 UNITED STATES ARTICLE HANDLING MECHANISM John A. Nowlnski, Detroit, Mich, assignor to Packard Motor Car Company, Detroit, Mich a corporation of Michigan Application January 4, 1934, Serial No. 705.221

' 3 Claims.

This invention relates to feeding machines and more particularly to machines for assembling roller bearings with their race members.

An object of the invention is to provide a new and novel machine which is operable to quickly and accurately assemble roller bearing sets between their race members. Another object of the invention is to provide a machine for automatically feeding bearings into a position such that they can be readily moved bodily in complete sets between their race members.

A further object of the invention is to provide mechanism which is manually operable to quickly transfer complete sets of roller bearings from a temporary holder to their assembled position between race members.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a bearing assembly device by means of which roller bearings are moved from a common source of supply into sets ina temporary holder from which they can be transferred bodily into assembled relation with their race members.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following description taken in connection with the drawing, which forms a part of this specification, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view, partly broken away and partly in section, of a bearing assembling machine incorporating my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the same,

partly broken away and partly in section;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a collet and a forms a temporary raceway for receiving sets of rollers and means for bodily displacing the sets 4 of rollers from the temporary raceway. On the standard is moimted a rotatable hopper drum and means for feeding roller bearings singly to the temporary raceway. I I

The standard is in the form of a plate having 0 a circular recess II in which the hopper drum is rotatably mounted. This-drum preferably consists of two sections it and I5 which are secured together by bolts it. "The exposed end of the drum section I5 is formed with a central opening I! through which roller bearings, as indicated at it covers the slots is except for a portion herein- 10 after referred to.

The drum serves as a roller'reservoir and provides elevating means for delivering the rollers to Y the mouth of a tortuous passage 22 through which they travel by gravity. One face of the standard 1 H is cut-away, along an edge to form a recess 23 for receiving a pair of vertically extending plates 24 and 25, the outer surface of such plates being flush with the main front surface of the standard. Theseplates are secured in position by pins 26 20 and they have spaced apart staggered adjacent surfaces forming the tortuous passage 22 therebetween. The mouth of such passage extends toward the periphery of the drum so that it is in open communication and registers with the slots 25 19 in the drum as they pass thereby. The plate 24 has one edge cut away so that a portion thereof extends complementary to the peripheral wall of the drum and serves to close the slots and thereby assist in the elevation of the rollers in 30 the slots to the point where they register with the mouth of the passage 22.

A suitable cover means is secured over the plates in order to close the front of the passage 22. In the present instance, this cover means 35 consists of a glass panel 21 which is cut away similarly to the plate 24 in a complementary relation to the drum. A suitable guide and retaining means is provided for the cover member and consists of-a flanged clip member 28 secured to 40.v

the front face of the standard by screws 29 and a flange 30 of a sheet metal chute forming member 3|. In the present instance, this sheet metal member 3| is secured to the side of the standard by screws 32 and is formed with a bent-out portion 33 which is spaced from the outer end of the plate 25 to form therebetween a guideway or chute through which rollers in excess of the amount which can be accommodated by the passage 22 can be carried away. This chute member extends a short distance above the top of the plate 25 so that rollers overflowing from the mouth of the passage 22 will move across the top of the plate 25 and -into the'overflow'guideway through which they will fall by gravity. To the lower end of the guideway member 8| is fixed an extension 35 to further direct the rollers into a receptacle 34 positioned adjacent the base ill.

.- With the drum and the housing is associated means for clearing the slots of the rollers when in registration with the inlet end of the passage 22. This means consists in this instance of a leaf spring 36 which is secured at one end to a boss 36' projecting from the forward face of the supporting standard. The spring extends downwardly and is of such length and flexibility that it will project into the slots I9 to engage the inner face of the bottom wall surface of the slots and slide outwardly thereon, as the drum rotates, to move the rollers outwardly of the slots and into the mouth of the passage 22. The angle at which these slots are formed provides a surface which holds the rollers in the slot and allows them to move by gravity into the mouth of the passage 22 when they register therewith. The resiliency of the member 88 will permit it to enga e the walls forming the slots'and spring outwardly as the drum continues in its upward rotation relative thereto.

Carried by the base l8 and associated with the gravity feed passage 22 is mechanism providin a temporary raceway, a pilot for race members to be filled with mller sets and means for tramferring sets of rollers from the temporary 'race- 30 way to their assembled position between the race v members. The base is formed with an opening into which is pressed a sleeve 31 so that it is fixed. Extending concentrically through the sleeve and r in spaced relation therewith is a shaft 3? which 35 is driven at its end by a belt 39 which extends around a pulley 48 fixed to and driven by the shaft 20. One end of the sleeve 3! lies beneath the passage 22 and is formed with a slot 4i which forms a continuation of the passage and allows 4o rollers therein to move by gravity into the temporary raceway formed between this end of the sleeve and the portion of the shaft 38, which extends therethrough. This temporary raceway is similar to the raceway between a pair of race members 42 and 48 into which the set of roller bearings are ultimately assembled. In order to prevent axial movement of the shaft 88 a set screw 44 is provided, such retaining element being screwed through the top portion of the base. a slot 45 in the sleeve 31 and into an annular recess 48 formed in the shaft 38.

A collet 4l is utilized to hold the pair of race members 42 and 43, therebeing a pilot 48 attached to the center of the collet to be partially telescoped by the race member 48. The race members have a sliding fit with the collet and the pilot 48 positions the inner race member in desired spaced relation with the outer race member to receive a set of roller bearings therebefor the inner member of the bearing races which aligns with the pilot 48 of the collet. The flange of the collet is recessed so that the outer race member can be readily grasped and retained or displaced by the. operator.

When the collet contains the pair of ring race members and the inner race member is piloted by the shaft extension 40, the set of hearings in the temporary raceway can be moved bodily endwise into assembled podtion between the race by a transfer sleeve 88 which extends between the shaft and the sleeve 81. This transfer sleeve is provided with an axially extending slot ii in order to permit axial movement past 7 the retaining screw 44, such ar a gement pretween. On the end of the shaft 38 is a pilot 49 venting rotational movement of the sleeve. The transfer sleeve projects beyond one end of the sleeve 31 and is formed with a narrow flange 52 which an operator can grasp to move the transfer sleeve axially in order to bodily transfer a set of bearings from the temporary raceway into the raceway between the set of race members carried by the collet. A'spring 58 bears at one end against the base and at the other end against the flange 52 and will normally maintain the transfer sleeve in an axial position so that its transfer end is clear of the temporary raceway.

A quantity of roller bearings are placed in the hopper drum through the opening I! and rotation of the drum will elevate the rollers in the slotted periphery to a point where they will fall by gravity and be cleared by the member 38 into the mouth of the passage. The roller hearings will move singly by gravity downwardly through the passage 22 and the overflow will pass across the top of the plate 25 and fall by gravity through the chute formed by the bent-out portion 33 of the strip 8|. The rollers pass from the outlet end of the passage 22 into the slot 4| in the sleeve 81 and move into the temporary raceway between one end of the sleeve 31 and the shaft 88 until the raceway is filled. The shaft 38 is rotated in order to assist the rollers in assuming a close relationship in the temporary raceway so that a complete set will be quickly and properly distributed. When. the temporary raceway is filled with a set of roller bearings, the operator grasps the collet 41 in which he has assembled a pair of ring race members and places the inner race member over the pilot 49 of the shaft 88 whereupon he moves the transfer sleeve 50 axially and forces the set of rollers in the temporary raceway intothe aligned permanent raceway between the race members in the collet. The collet and race members held thereby are then moved away from the shaft 38 and the bearing structure is in a relation to be applied as an assembled unit into position with the device with which it is to be permanently associated. Through means of the structure herein described. I am able to quickly and accurately assemble sets of roller bearings with race members.

' Although the invention has been described in connection with a specific embodiment, the principles involved are susceptible of numerous other applications which will readily occur to persons skilled in the art. The invention is therefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the appended claims.

. What I claim is:

1. In a bearing assembling machine, a supporting member, a pair of vertically extending plates secured in spaced relation to one side of the supporting member and forming a passage between adjacent walls thereof through whichroller bearings are adapted to move singly by gravity, a cover fixed over the plates to enclose the passage, and another cover in spaced relation with an end of one of said plates and extending above the top thereof to form .a gnideway for roller bearings overflowing the mouth of the e.

- 2. In a-roller bearing handling machine, the combination with a rotatable hopper drum having a slotted peripheral wall, and a housing having a passage therein open, at its upper end to receive rollers directly from the slots in the drum as they pass thereby, of a roller clearing'means comprising aleaf spring positioned to enter the slots in said drum behind the rollers being elevated therein as they approach the inlet end of said possage, said drum in its rotation moving the spring outwardly of the slots to thereby sweep the rollers from the slots into the passage.

3. In a roller bearing handling machine, the combination of a standard, a rotatable hopper drum having a slotted peripheral drum, a housing 7 having a passage with an inlet at its upper end to receive rollers directly from the slots in the drum as they pass thereby, and resilient means fixed at 

